Adaptive Bit Rate (ABR) streaming is an emerging technology that is rapidly being adopted for commercial real-time distribution of video media and is a technique used in streaming multimedia over computer networks. While in the past most video streaming technologies utilized streaming protocols such real-time transport protocol (RTP) with real-time streaming protocol (RTSP), today's adaptive streaming technologies are almost exclusively based on hypertext transport protocol (HTTP) and designed to work efficiently over large distributed HTTP networks such as the Internet.
Streaming media content can be divided into segments having a fixed duration. ABR streaming protocols have been also been developed. ABR is a method of streaming media content where sequential HTTP progressive downloads in which a continuous media program is delivered as a series of sequential media segments or chunks.
In view of the foregoing, alternative methods of ABR are needed to better accommodate performance and distribution needs of the media content and distributors.